This is a relief to find! I just looked at htop and panicked over the high amount of “used” memory.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word “Linux” in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
Rules
- Posts must be relevant to operating systems running the Linux kernel. GNU/Linux or otherwise.
- No misinformation
- No NSFW content
- No hate speech, bigotry, etc
Related Communities
Community icon by Alpár-Etele Méder, licensed under CC BY 3.0
- 0 users online
- 5 users / day
- 20 users / week
- 27 users / month
- 16 users / 6 months
- 20 subscribers
- 684 Posts
- 1.7K Comments
- Modlog
This is also the reason “unused RAM is wasted RAM” makes little sense in an application context. OS designers realized that wisdom a long time ago, so they already made sure to utilize that unused RAM via disk caching.
Now, if Chrome or Chrome VSCode or Chrome Discord or Chrome MS Teams requests tons of RAM, it most likely gets this used-but-available RAM, which your OS was using for disk caching.
In the case of Chrome itself, this will make Chrome faster at the expense of your other applications’ performance.
In the case of non-browser applications based on Chrome, your system’s performance is sacrificed, so that Microsoft can rake in its profit without actually investing money into proper application development. 🙂